The morning went smoothly, which was a nice change from recent chaos! H slept in until about 9am, but he seems to have caught up on enough sleep to be happy and cheerful. K got up earlier, and watched The Incredibles on her computer, but I am now enforcing the 2-hour limit on her computer and refusing to turn on the study computer until after 5pm, so after she ran out of time and was logged off, the kids have accepted that the rest of the day will be screen-free. So far they have actually been quite helpful: K filled the woodbox for me without being asked, and they took out the rubbish bins and emptied the recycling tub together. K wrote some notes for an imaginative game out in the garden and threaded beading line on them so she could hang them on trees. H made endless Duplo creations. Then both of them settled down in their room playing a long game, based on The Incredibles from what I could hear. I did laundry, rescued various rooms from total chaos, inventoried the deep-freeze, and made pumpkin soup for lunch as requested by both smalls.

After lunch, K starting writing again, this time Dr Seuss. She wrote “My teeth are gold, my hat is old, I have a bird I like to hold, my shoe is off, my foot is cold” and “One fish two fish red fish blue fish”, asking me for most of the spelling but writing the words she knew. Then she was able to read it back to herself. After that, she dressed H and took him outside to continue their game, except now he was her little sister. I did the washing up and more laundry, and discovered that I could whack thumbtacks into the front of the craft cupboard to fasten up the rainbow sheep we made yesterday (K commented that “it looks just like school”, heh), so at least they are no longer shedding underfoot. The kids did more collage, and kept playing together very happily – they were so engrossed in their games that they didn’t want me at all, so I finally got around to starting my recycled wristwarmers instead.

After some more farnarkling with the list (since it was payday today so I can do a normal shop instead of a smaller one), we headed out and did the shopping. Since it was after 5pm when we got home, I let the kids put the computer back on to watch Playschool. I am pleased with how well the detoxing is going, from the 4+ hrs of screentime a day we had slipped into over recent weeks. The two kids played together beautifully for most of the day and there was much less friction among us all. Which is good, because Mr Bat worked until 6pm so was home much later than usual – often a recipe for disaster, but today hardly an issue at all. We had ricepaper rolls for dinner and then attempted to Skype Grandmoogi before books and bed.